I wasn't going to read any of these Yule stories, but I LOOOOVED A Little Princess, so I printed it out.

Am I too late for this challenge? If I work on the next installment of "To the Chuppah" perhaps I can reach Chanukah in the story. I left off motzai Shabbos Parshas Noach. Maybe I'll have it ready for the last day of Chanukah.

Before you start reading it, I have to warn you - it's slash. It's a romance between Sara's father and the Indian Gentleman.

As for being too late - you're early for next year.

The way this challenge works is that way back in the autumn, we were all asked to submit rare pairings and/or fandoms. After they compiled the list, we were then asked to choose which fandoms we were willing to write, both in general (as in, I'd write anything from the Vorkosiganverse) and in particular (Ex - Clark and Lois in Lois and Clark - not one of my choices, but an example, never the less.) The more, the better. We were also asked to pick four fandoms/pairings we'd like to see. This was one of mine. Then they spend who knows how long matching people up, in hopes that the the writers all get *something* from the four that they could write.

If you want to participate next year, you have to pick a story that has not been written - obviously, 3/4 of the requests, more or less, go unanswered and write that before the deadline of next October (or whenever they say.) I was unwilling to do it in previous years because of the name, but it's the sort of thing I enjoy, so I figured I would this year. And I did enjoy it, even if, as it happened, I had a difficult time with the story I wrote. I hope she likes it - she hasn't left a comment.

I feel remarkably privileged that the story I requested is so brilliant and beautiful and *right*. I think it was the story that so many of us wanted to read, those of us who have read and loved the original book, and here it is exactly as it must have happened.

And the writer did such a masterful job of writing that, as you can see above, people who didn't know the source also liked it.